Have Western experts fundamentally failed to understand the dynamics, leaders and culture of the Middle East? Dina Rezk analyses 8 case studies, culminating in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar el Sadat on live television on 6 October 1981, Drawing on declassified documents, interviews and multi-archival research, she explores how the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world have been so notoriously caught off guard in post-WWII Middle East.

This book addresses a critical question embedded within a heated debate about American intelligence after 9/11: have Western experts failed in some fundamental way to understand the dynamics, leaders and culture of the Middle East? Using the most recently declassified documents, interviews and Arabic sources, the book examines seminal case studies culminating in Sadat's dramatic assassination and explores how the most knowledgeable and powerful intelligence agencies in the world have been so notoriously caught off guard in this region.